The Matt Reeves situation should teach us about "patience"

When it was announced that Matt Reeves had dropped out of talks to direct the solo Batman movie in the DC Extended Universe, reaction from the fanbase and many bloggers was unsurprisingly negative: 

That was all on Day One when it was reported that talks broke down. The following week was a complete evisceration of WB and the DCEU that featured everything from "WB is incompetent" to the standard "The DCEU is doomed," and a colorfully inane statement of "Why don't you go back in time, stop sucking and get it right" that made the rounds all across social media. 

So naturally, it made sense that exactly one week later THIS would happen: 

And in a statement from WB announcing the signing came this quote from Reeves himself: 

I'm really not one for "I told you so," but if Justin Kroll of Variety wanted to do that, he absolutely could considering he reported THIS the day the negotiations were reported to have broken down:

So......what have we learned here, people? 

I've said before that we collectively don't just enjoy movies anymore because now with so much information at our fingertips and so many people looking to report it all to us, we now enjoy the process of making movies instead of watching the movies themselves. One of the downsides of that mindset is that when the movie comes out, you focus more on finding everything that you heard and read about in the process than you do actually paying attention to and enjoying the movie. 

The other downside is what has happened here, where you make such a big deal out of a "routine" process in Hollywood that turns out to be nothing more than a negotiating tactic for more money, which according to Deadline was EXACTLY the case:

The business of Hollywood strikes again. Reeves wanted to make sure he was getting the best bang for his buck. Can you blame the guy? After Cloverfield and what will be two Planet of the Apes reboot movies after this year, he's now going to be in charge of arguably the most popular superhero in history's solo film in a shared universe franchise. You don't do that for peanuts, that's for sure. 

And in the end, that's all it really was. A business decision that everyone flipped out and got frustrated with. So many people called for WB to get their act together and respond to the bad press because it was really getting out of hand. Well sure, the bad press is going to get out of hand when simple things like a contract negotiation breaking off talks gets reported as "the death of an entire franchise because no one wants to direct its movies." 

For the people who wanted WB to respond to the story about Reeves breaking off negotiations, NOW do you see why they shouldn't have? They were on the other side of the table working to make a deal happen with their director choice, which is far more important that letting all of us know what is really going on behind the scenes, which we really shouldn't care that much about in the first place. I know people will disagree with that, but I'm a simple person. All I need to know is who's in the movie and when is it coming out. I'll be there front and center to see it, as will all of the rest of us, including and probably especially the "I've had it with WB and DC" crowd. 

This little "episode" with Matt Reeves and his prospects of directing the Batman solo movie should be a lesson to all of us about being patient, and understanding that when things that are part of the business happen, it does us no good to freak out and panic over what is going on......especially when the movie we are freaking out over is at least THREE movies away in the DCEU release calendar. Seriously, for a week everyone forgot that Wonder Woman and Justice League are due out this year and Aquaman, set to start shooting in May, is due out next year. We were all too busy being mad about the Batman solo movie not having a director. Just silly. 

I'm not counting on the idea that everyone has learned their lesson about patience on this because I know they haven't. Hopefully some have, but I'm sure that the next time something like this happens and we become privy to that "behind the scenes of Hollywood knowledge" there will be several clickbait overreactions from the bloggers and critics, followed by massive overreaction from the fans. The best we can hope for is that a week later, it will all look just as ridiculous as the outrage over the Reeves situation looks right now.